On 31 October, a packed meeting organised by the University College London Union (UCLU) against the university’s proposal to build on the Carpenters Estate in Newham heard from residents, students and housing experts opposed to the plans.
UCL plans to build a new £1 billion campus in Stratford. The council has been running down the 705-home estate for a decade, encouraging residents to leave and boarding up empty properties with squatter-proof metal shutters, despite a housing shortage in the borough. The estate still has 318 homes and many members of the close-knit community are defiantly opposed to plans to move them out.
Members of Carpenters Against Regeneration Plan (CARP) attended the meeting at UCL and argued that the council is treating their community as a “social problem” and wants to change the class character of the area. The meeting showed films narrating the broken promises of the so-called “Olympic legacy” and the contemptuous manner in which the council has treated residents opposed to the plans.
Protests are planned.
